374 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and the faithfulness with which they have worked, the state- 

 ment also tells of the existence of a considerable spirit of 

 lawlessness, of the existence of a class that has no respect 

 for the expressed wishes of the majority of the people, — a 

 class that would strike a blow at the very essence of demo- 

 cratic institutions. 



We feel that this is emphatically true in regard to the 

 violation of food laws. The violators of these enactments 

 do not come from the so-called criminal classes, from those 

 with inherited appetites and passions, from those whose 

 ignorance has blunted moral instincts. The people who, 

 from a spirit of avarice, impose upon the consumers of the 

 State adulterated, fraudulent or low-grade foods, are often 

 gentlemen of fair or even good standing in business, society 

 or politics. These gentlemen cheat consumers, injure honest 

 commerce and defraud producers ; and in so doing they show 

 a most reprehensible disrespect of law and order, and by 

 their standing they exert a peculiarly bad influence in the 

 community. 



The membership of the Bureau has undergone a change dur- 

 ing the past year by the death of the chairman, Mr. D. A. 

 Horton of Northampton, Mr. F. W. Sargent of Amesbury 

 being appointed in his place. This change removed from 

 the Bureau the last of the original appointees. The Bureau 

 was organized in 1891, with Messrs. C. A. Hartshorn of 

 Worcester, D. A. Horton of Northampton and Geo. L. 

 Clemence of Southbridge as members. As terms of office as 

 members of the Board of Agriculture expired, Mr. Hartshorn 

 was succeeded by Mr. Ellsworth and Mr. Clemence was 

 succeeded by Mr. Richardson. On the reorganization of the 

 Bureau, after the death of Mr. Horton and the appointment 

 of Mr. Sargent, Mr. J. L. Ellsworth, the senior member, 

 was elected chairman. The administrative work has con- 

 tinued in the same hands as heretofore, but with a change in 

 the title of the position and with a statutory definition of the 

 duties involved. 



In the reports of the Bureau for the years 1896 and 1897, 

 attention was called to the vague and somewhat misleading 

 allusion to the position in the statutes ; chapter 412, section 

 6, of the Acts of 1891, providing for an "assistant to the 



